


And the Rain Came Down

by sanguineheavens



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel 616
Genre: Established Relationship, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-28
Updated: 2013-08-28
Packaged: 2017-12-24 23:13:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/945818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanguineheavens/pseuds/sanguineheavens
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The rain won't cancel Araña and Nomad's plans.  Of course, they can't quite agree on the nature of those plans.  Or: teen heroes playing in the rain!</p>
            </blockquote>





	And the Rain Came Down

                Sometimes in New York, the rain falls so hard that the word ‘lashed’ doesn’t feel over the top.  It beats on your body and stings on your cheeks driving sideways in quick bursts as the wind starts and stops.  It’s terrible weather to be out in at all, and it is absolutely stupid weather to be throwing oneself around on rooftops and fire escapes and walls.  Araña didn’t mind – Brooklyn in heavy rain has the heady smell of green growing things, the rough sandy scent of soaking cement, the clear tang of water just slightly tinted with the never-far-away shore, and sometimes that smell just got into the head, and nothing else mattered.  It was a beautiful horrible day, she reflected as she made herself still and listen as hard as she could for pursuit.  She perched at the edge of the roof of a low brown-brick apartment building, her hand on the bracings of a fire escape, waiting.  The sound of pounding feet came from behind her, not below, but she didn’t pause to wonder about when she’d lost track of her hunter, she just levered herself over the edge and started slipping in controlled slides down level after level of  the fire escape.  The slick metal gave her some trouble, and she had a near disaster just before she hit the first floor, but she managed to keep her feet, narrowly.

                The alley she came down in was narrow and empty, its back end caged off with the sort of low, chain link fence with no bar at the middle, making it hard to climb.  With nothing to hide behind, Araña had to head for the street.  She could feel herself grinning from ear to ear, despite being soaked through, battered, and just a little bit blind thanks to the water running down her goggles.  This was proving to be _way_ more fun than she had expected, and what about playing tag on rooftops hadn’t sounded fun to begin with? 

                _“It’s not a game of tag!”  Rikki Barnes insisted, quietly, as Anya followed her down the steps of their school, trying not to giggle.  “It’s a skills-building exercise.  These are the sorts of things we have to do_ all the time _and it can be really helpful to practice them in non-hostile situations.”  
                “Yes,” Anya nodded making a mock-serious face, “and the only possible way to practice them is to chase each other around rooftops, changing off periodically who is chasing whom.”  
                “I hear you mocking me.  I choose to rise above it.”  
                “Look, I’m not saying it _ won’t _be good practice.  I am just also saying that it is a game of super tag.”_  
       _“You’re just saying.”_  
 _“I am,” Anya laughed.  “I am also saying that you’re really cute when you’re grumpy.”_  
 _“It is not a game of tag, I’m not grumpy, and I’m not cute.  How do I get you to drop this?”  They paused on the corner, waiting for the light, and using that chance to look each other in the face._  
 _“Oh, I won’t be dropping this any time soon.  I like the faces you make.”_

                On the whole, after the adjustment period, Rikki had come to love Nomad – both the costume and the identity.  By now, they fit like her own skin.  Sadly, her own skin had goggles, and today was simply not the day for that.  They were specially treated so the rainwater slid right off the outside, but honestly that didn’t help as much as she’d have liked, because in rain this heavy, it just meant she had a constantly moving stream of water over her eyes.  Nomad didn’t bother coming off the fire escape lightly, Araña already knew how close she was.  She made a huge splash, and continued splashing up the alleyway, wishing she’d cancelled for the day.  It was raining, and she could barely see, and she could just tell she was never, ever going to hear the end of this from Anya.  Never.  Years from now, she was going to be getting taunting voicemails about super-tag Tuesdays and how super-important they were.  She groaned silently as she rounded the corner Araña had disappeared around and spotted the low green slope rising away from the sidewalk.  How had she forgotten the park?  Why would Araña go _into_ the park?  It was going to be muddy, and slippery and…  Okay.  Enough grumbling.  Time to close the distance a little.  
  
 _“That is a_ lot _of rain.”_ _Anya remarked, casually, as they leaned on the wall between the two sets of doors at the front of their school.  “You chickening out?” Rikki asked, sincerely hoping the answer was ‘yes’.  She didn’t really relish the idea of-  
                “Out of tag?  I just might be.  It looks rotten.”  
                “It’s not tag, it’s-“  
                “Oh, that’s right, I forgot, it’s _ very important _skills training.  Then I certainly can’t cancel for the weather, can I?  We have to do everything we can to keep our skills primed to perfection.”  Rikki didn’t sigh, but she did wish powerfully that she’d kept her mouth shut, “That’s true.”_  
                _“Our tag skills.”_  
 _“Do I like you?”_

                The road up the hill was smooth and open, and definitely not a great place to hide, so Araña took the flat, tree-lined road that ran along the edge of the park and down towards the playgrounds.  Playgrounds sounded perfect.  Even if it was too wet to use the poles for much without slipping, the rubberized landings of the multi-tiered climbing platforms still sounded like a lot of fun.  The rain was beginning to taper off, she was beginning to feel chilly, and she had the best idea for how to wrap up this game. 

                By the time Nomad reached the playground’s nearest corner, Araña was waiting on one side of the obligatory swinging bridge, under a small peaked roof, leaning in the corner of the only solid panels on the entire slide-and-climbing –frame complex.  The rain was clearly weighing down her ponytail, her arms were crossed over her chest.  “Okay,” Nomad called up, “you know you’ve left the slide as your only reasonable exit point and that’s pretty dumb, right?”  
                “I’m changing the rules.”  
                “You’re changing the rules?”  
                “Rainy day sudden death round.  You, me, the playground, and combat rapid tagging.  We keep track of a score, and when one or the other of us is beating the other by 5, we quit and find ourselves cocoa.”  

                It sounded pretty good to Rikki, who was ready to be somewhere dry.   “I accept the change of rules,” Nomad said, sounding as pompous as she could.  She liked the smile that lit up the whole bottom half of Araña’s face below the goggles, and, stupidly, she let herself get distracted by that, and the other girl came flying forward, over the safety rail of the bridge and landed on the ground in front of her and jabbed her lightly on the shoulder. 

                "One,” and Anya laughed.  “Only one exit, huh?”  
                “I stand corrected,” Rikki laughed, trying to get past her friend’s guard to score her own first hit.    Anya blocked, and blocked again, and jumped backwards, out of reach.  Instead of chasing her on her terms, Nomad backed off, too.  They circled the slide frame warily for a moment, and then almost at once they ran at each other.  In the ensuing rush of climbing, jumping, poking, and blocking they almost lost count of tags or hits, and they both got breathless.  In the end Araña, up by four, largely due to her greater willingness to look silly, cornered Nomad above the slide. The surfaces were all slippery, and a jab that was wild with the possibility of victory combined with a successful and forceful block caused Anya to slip in the rain and tip towards the slide.  Rikki, trying to help her keep her balance, stepped on her foot in the too-small space, and then they were bone-jarringly close and tumbling together down the soaking slide.  They landed with a huge splash in a puddle at the foot of the slide.

                “Well, that was perfectly graceful and very heroic of us.”  Rikki grumbled, trying to work out how to sit up.  
                “Did I win?” Asked Anya, her spirits absolutely unquenched by the tumble into the puddle.  
                “If I say yes, can we go inside?”  They had both managed to disentangle, and sit up.  
                “You want to quit?  But I thought this was _very important_.” Araña pulled herself to her feet and offered Nomad a hand, which the other girl accepted, mostly so that once she was standing, they would be holding hands.  
                “It was the most important game of tag I’ve ever played, but let’s go get dry, okay?”  Rikki squeezed Anya’s hand and gave her a wry grin.  Araña laughed, and leaned in for a kiss.  They both winced as their goggles went _crack_ against each other.  They walked, holding hands, back towards the edge of the park and the place Nomad had stored her backpack.  Anya was thinking fiercely about cocoa.


End file.
